Groucho Marx - IMDb IMDb 31 December 2016 6:09 PM, UTC NEWS Soundtrack | Actor | Writer The bushy-browed, cigar-smoking wise-cracker with the painted-on moustache and stooped walk was the leader of The Marx Brothers . With one-liners that were often double entendres, Groucho never cursed in any of his performances and said he never wanted to be known as a dirty comic. With a great love of music and singing ( The Marx Brothers started ... See full bio » Born: a list of 32 people created 06 Nov 2011 a list of 30 people created 04 Dec 2011 a list of 33 people created 11 months ago a list of 43 people created 5 months ago a list of 45 people created 4 months ago Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Groucho Marx's work have you seen? User Polls Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 3 wins. See more awards » Known For Duck Soup Rufus T.

Firefly (1933) Animal Crackers Captain Jeffrey Spaulding (1930) 2013 Breaking Bad (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Felina (2013) ... (performer: "Lydia The Tattooed Lady" - uncredited) 2012 Hello I Must Be Going (performer: "Hello I Must Be Going" (a/k/a/ "Hooray For Captain Spaulding")) 2009 Whatever Works (performer: "Hello I Must Be Going") 1986 Hannah and Her Sisters (performer: "Freedonia's Going To War" - uncredited) 1976 That's Entertainment, Part II (Documentary) (performer: "Sing Ho! for the Open Highway! Sing Ho! for the Open Road!" - uncredited) 1970 Music Scene (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Episode #1.17 (1970) ...

(performer: "Father's Day") You Bet Your Life (TV Series) (performer - 13 episodes, 1950 - 1960) (lyrics - 1 episode, 1956) - Episode #10.30 (1960) ... (performer: "Waiting For The Robert E. Lee" - uncredited) - Episode #9.8 (1958) ... (performer: "I'm 94 Today") - Episode #8.34 (1958) ... (performer: "Play A Simple Melody") - Episode #8.22 (1958) ... (performer: "'O Sole Mio") 1952 A Girl in Every Port (performer: "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" - uncredited) 1951 Double Dynamite (performer: "It's Only Money", "Stone Walls", "Jesse James" - uncredited) 1950 Mr.

Music (performer: "Life Is So Peculiar") 1947 Copacabana (performer: "Go West, Young Man", "Let's Do the Copacabana" (uncredited)) 1941 The Big Store (performer: "Sing While You Sell" (1941)) 1940 Go West (performer: "Ridin' the Range" (1940), "You Can't Argue with Love" (1940), "Oh! Susanna" (1848) (uncredited), "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" (uncredited), "My Bonnie (Lies Over the Ocean)" (1881) (uncredited)) 1939 At the Circus (performer: "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" (1939), "Oh! Susanna" (1848) - uncredited) 1937 A Day at the Races (performer: "An der schönen, blauen Donau, Op.

314 (Blue Danube Waltz)" (1866), "La Cucaracha", "Down by the Old Mill Stream" (1908), "A Message from the Man in the Moon" (1937) - uncredited) 1935 A Night at the Opera (performer: "Sing Ho for the Open Highway!

Sing Ho for the Open Road!", "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" (1931) - uncredited) 1933 Duck Soup (performer: "These Are the Laws of My Administration" (1933), "The Country's Going to War" (1933) - uncredited) 1932 Horse Feathers (performer: "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It" (1932), "I Always Get My Man" (1932), "Everyone Says I Love You" (1932) - uncredited) 1931 Monkey Business (performer: "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" (1930), "Sweet Adeline" (1903) - uncredited) 1930 Animal Crackers (performer: "Hello, I Must Be Going" (1930), "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" (1928), "Gypsy Chorus" (1852), "My Old Kentucky Home" (1852) - uncredited) Hide Super Reviewer ½ Dispite the short duration of it and

 the lack of more informations about McCarey's storytelling, Duck Soup is one of the finest Marx Brothers film.

Laugh out loud all the 69 minutes. Groucho presents the most unforgettable character of his career, Rufus T. Firefly, that sometimes remember Chaplin's The Great Dictator, a few Three Stooges shorts and we can see too the clear influence that Rufus had in Sacha Baron Cohen's Admiral General Aladeen. Fresh. Lucas Martins The best movie to see on election night! Freedonia rules. Rufus Firefly for president. Bathsheba Monk Super Reviewer Rufus T. Firefly is announced as the new leader of bankrupt Freedonia, but will his penchant for insulting everyone he meets ignite a war? Anarchic, consistently funny (almost every single line Groucho utters is an instant classic), lightlky satirical, and it features the famous mirror sequence; probably the greatest of all the Marx Brothers movies. Greg S Duck Soup (1933) | The Film Spectrum Producer: Herman J.

Mankiewicz (Paramount) Writers: Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby (screenplay) Photography: Henry Sharp Music: John Leipold Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres, Louis Calhern, Edmund Breese, Leonid Kinskey, Charles Middleton, Edgar Kennedy Introduction Their careers began over a century ago, as a family vaudeville act in New York. Yet the very mention of the phrase “Marx Brothers” has become cultural shorthand for comic genius and a reminder that good comedy never stales. Yes, they were all actual brothers, and yes, there were as many as five: Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo and Gummo, though the lattermost left the act before the group started making films in 1926. “By the time the Marx Brothers were on film, they were doing routines that they had perfected on stage for years and years on the vaudeville circuit, so they really knew what they were doing,” writer/director Andrew Bergman says.

“They just took everything apart.” In all, the siblings made 16 pictures together through 1957, and as the wisecracking standout, Groucho enjoyed a solo career that stretched into the ’60s. But of all the films they made, none was more influential or more hilarious than their 1933 flop Duck Soup, their last at Paramount, and last with Zeppo, a film grossly under-appreciated in its day, but quite simply one of the finest comedies ever made. Plot Summary The film takes place in the fictional country of Freedonia, a miniscule place barely seen on a map. The nation faces grave bankruptcy and can only be saved by the contribution of wealthy widow Gloria Teasdale (Margaret Dumont), who insists the current prime minister step down in favor of Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx). Of course, it isn’t exactly the best time for Firefly to take over. Freedonia is on the brink of war with neighboring Sylvania.

But take over he does, while his assistant, Bob Roland (Zeppo Marx), warns about the suspicious motives of Sylvanian ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern), who’s secretly trying to take over Freedonia by marrying Mrs. Teasdale. Trentino sends two spies, Pinky (Harpo Marx) and Chicolini (Chico Marx), to gather intelligence on Firefly. Later, he sends them to Mrs. Teasdale’s home to steal Freedonia’s war plans, only for Firefly to catch them red-handed. Controlled Chaos The appeal of watching the Marx Bros. is the sense that anything can happen at any time, whether it’s Harpo rising out of a bathtub, or a doghouse tattoo turning into a real barking dog . The final war sequence is absolute frenzy with Groucho wearing five different uniforms as he dodges explosions and heat-seeking missiles through the window, Harpo’s hat spinning around from machine-gun fire, and a priceless “help is on the way” montage, where the cavalry arrives in the form of fire engines, motorcycle cops, marathon runners, rowers, swimmers, baboons, elephants and dolphins. While some of the visuals appear dated, they are nonetheless ambitious.

And who better to organize this controlled chaos than director Leo McCarey? Between 1926-1929, McCarey served as Laurel and Hardy’s “supervisor.” He says that meant “writing the story, cutting it, stringing the gags together, coordinating everything, screening the rushes, working on the editing, sending out the prints, working on the second editing when the preview reactions weren’t good enough and even, from time to time, shooting sequences over again.” (E) With Laurel and Hardy already under his belt, and the screwball comedy The Awful Truth (1937) on the horizon, McCarey was at the prime of his career to attempt the Marx Brothers. Yet even he admits he felt overwhelmed by them. (E) It may be fun to imagine what would have happened if the film’s original director, Ernst Lubitsch, stayed on, but McCarey does a more than admirable job.

As critic David Thomson says, of all the Marx Brothers films, “Duck Soup alone suggests a director: its humor is better organized, and its satire on war more serious.” (E) Watch the way the director helps bring forth the comedy, as with a slow pan past pairs of shoes at the foot of a bed. We see a man’s shoes, a woman’s shoes, then a set of horse shoes, as we cut to see the woman in a separate bed while Harpo shares a bed with the horse (hello Godfather). Duck Soup also features McCarey’s signature mark, the patented “slow burn,” where a clown figure takes a while to realize the disaster befalling him. (E) Here, it comes as Harpo and Chico agitate the shit out of Edgar Kennedy at a peanut stand, lifting their legs up into his hands, stealing his hat, and culminating with the literal presentation of the “slow burn” — Kennedy’s hat in flames behind him. Kennedy benefited so much from the film that he went on to star in a 1942 short of his own, also called Duck Soup. Script Du Jour So why the title?

“Duck soup” was once a common phrase for “gullible sucker,” which would more than accurately describe Kennedy at the hands of the Marxes. Groucho offered an alternate explanation: “Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you’ll duck soup the rest of your life.” (B) You could also say the title refers to the sound made by Harpo’s horns, recalling Rodney Dangerfield’s Caddyshack line: “Did somebody step on a duck?” In reality, McCarey pulled the title from his own 1927 Laurel and Hardy two-reeler. (B) The title is just the beginning of a crazy script by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, who had previously worked with the Marxes on the play Animal Crackers and the screenplay for Horse Feathers (1932). Ironically, both eventually gave up screenwriting, in 1949 and 1952, respectively, and turned to songwriting instead, sharing an Oscar nomination with Oscar Hammerstein II for “A Kiss to Build a Dream On” in The Strip (1951).

But when they were still writing dialogue for the Marx Bros., Kalmar and Ruby were unreal. It was their Animal Crackers that provided Groucho with the most famous line of his career — “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know” — voted #53 on the AFI’s 100 Movie Quotes . While Duck Soup doesn’t land any quotes on that list, it has the deepest supply of one-liners in Marx Bros. history, so much so that McCarey later lamented that he may have relied on them too heavily. (E) There are honestly more witty lines in five minutes of Duck Soup than there are in most two-hour comedies. To totally register just how funny Groucho is, you almost have to hit pause in between every time he speaks. That’s how fast the jokes come. And no matter what’s on the page, Groucho’s delivery, with signature cigar, painted-on mustache and fuzzy eyebrows, brings the comedy to another level.

He’s the undisputed king of side-splitting quips, like “I got a good mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it,” or “I danced before Napoleon. No, Napoleon danced before me. In fact, he danced 200 years before me,” or when he looks at a hot young gal and says, “I could dance with you till the cows come home. On second thought, I’d rather dance with the cows till you come home.” His best moments no doubt come when he’s on screen with Dumont, mocking both her reputation (“I’m fighting for this woman’s honor! Which is more than she ever did”) and her weight (“Ahh, marriage. I can see you right now in the kitchen, standing over a hot stove. But I can’t see the stove”). Still, the funniest exchange between Groucho and Dumont comes as she welcomes him as Freedonia’s new leader: MRS. TEASDALE: As chairwoman of the reception committee, I welcome you with open arms. RUFUS T. FIREFLY: Is that so? How late do you stay open? MRS.

TEASDALE: I’ve sponsored your appointment because I feel you are the most able statesman in all of Freedonia. RUFUS T. FIREFLY: Well, that covers a lot of ground. Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself. You better beat it. I hear they’re going to tear you down and put up an office building where you’re standing. You can leave in a taxi. If you can’t get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. You know you haven’t stopped talking since I came here? You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle. That final line was voted No. 43 on Premiere‘s 100 Greatest Movie Lines, but the full exchange between Firefly and Teasdale makes for a perfect psycho-analysis of Firefly. He is at once trying to woo Mrs. Teasdale, and simultaneously trying to tear her down. He uses innuendo to flirt (“How late do you stay open?”) but then immediately mocks her weight (“You cover a lot of ground yourself”). This suggests not an inadequacy on her part, but a loneliness on his, yearning for sexual fulfillment. Is he inexperienced? Virginal? Impotent?

The final lines (“You know you haven’t stopped talking since I came in here?”) is thus a self accusation, painting Groucho as the constant chatterbox, always needing the last word. Only his phonograph vaccine was no cure. It was a curse. Except for we audience members, who get to sit and laugh at his insecurities. Political Satire Beyond the dialogue, the script also works as a poignant political satire. “Freedonia” is a fitting choice of name, and a commentary on how easily nations wage war under the banner of “freedom.” The name actually drew fire from Fredonia, New York, where town officials wrote to the Marx Bros, complaining about the similarity in name. The Marx Bros. didn’t budge an inch, writing the town back, saying, “Change the name of your town. It’s hurting our picture.” (C) Ultimately, Duck Soup added another “e” to “Freedonia,” just to be safe. “A little bit of political humor and a lot of anarchy is right up my alley,” said actor Peter Fonda, who did his own politicking in Easy Rider (1969).

“Duck Soup was a work of brilliance.” (G) Arriving in 1933, the same year Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, the film mocks the authoritarian governments that were coming to power in Europe at the time. Benito Mussolini actually banned the film in Italy, believing it to be a direct mockery of him, and the reaction more than pleased the Marx Brothers. (B) Watching the film, you can imagine a real-life dictator’s reaction to such tongue-in-cheek lines as, ““Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?” and the oppressive exchange, “Your excellency! You’re shooting at your own men!” “Here’s $5.

Keep it under your hat.” Duck Soup goes on to deride many negative political practices: the influence of money on elections; military officials paying people to cover up collateral damage; leaders getting so caught up in their own ideology that they skip diplomacy and go straight to war; and governments sending people off to war while they sit back and say, “Remember while you’re out there risking life and limb through shot and shell, we’ll be in here thinking what a sucker you are.” Predating Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940) by seven years and Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (1964) by a good three decades, you could say Duck Soup was way ahead of it’s time. As far as satires go, it may just be the funniest. While the whole thing stings of satirical wit, the main goal of the film is not a serious pondering of war, but rather to simply show how silly the idea can be. When asked the political significance of Duck Soup, Groucho reportedly said, “What significance?

We were just four Jews trying to get a laugh.” (D) Physical Comedy In spite of the sharp dialogue, a huge portion of the laughs come from the masterful physical comedy, namely in the interactions between Chico and Harpo. The former is always ready with a clever play on words: “I’ll teach you to kick me!” “You don’t have to teach me, I know how!” WHAM. The latter nails his portrayal of a mute, horn-honking, scissor-happy goofball, with a big smile and curly hair stuffed under a pixie hat. They are the original Jay and Silent Bob, with Harpo doing a something stupefying and Chico telling him, “That’s no good.” Their interplay peaks when they enter Teasdale’s home. Chico tells Harpo do be very quiet, which of course causes him to set off every noisy object in the room. Their ensuing romp, disguised in nightgowns identical to the one worn by Firefly, is one for the history books. Even if you’ve never seen the movie, you can imagine the comedic possibilities of three identical people interacting with each other and other unsuspecting characters.

The madness culminates with the legendary “mirror” scene, where Pinkie is spotted by Firefly and, while running away, accidentally runs through a mirror, shattering it to pieces. As Firefly follows, Pinkie must stand where the mirror formerly stood, which now creates an opening between two rooms, and pretend that the door frame is in fact a mirror, imitating Firefly’s movements in pantomime. A similar gag had already been done in Chaplin’s The Floorwalker (1916) and Max Linder’s Seven Years Bad Luck (1921), but no one did it more entertainingly than Groucho and Harpo, spinning around in those nightgowns and injecting their interplay straight into our pop culture. (B). Pop Culture Harpo recreated the mirror gag with Lucille Ball in an episode of I Love Lucy (1951). It was spoofed by both Bugs Bunny (Hare Tonic) and Mickey Mouse (Lonesome Ghosts).

It was also spoofed by David Duchovny and Michael McKean in The X-Files; Benny Hill and Pat Ashton in a 1980 episode of The Benny Hill Show; and Stewie and Hitler in a 2008 episode of Family Guy. In TV’s M*A*S*H, Hawkeye says Henry reminds him of Groucho in Duck Soup. The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) revives the Duck Soup gag of burglars and radios; Monty Python & The Holy Grail (1975) recreates the gag of playing glockenspiel on soldiers/knights helmets. Fival’s An American Tale (1986) has Warren T. Rat quoting Chico, “Who are you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?” Rob Zombie names characters after Rufus T. Firefly in The Devil’s Rejects (2005). And characters watch the film itself in Patch Adams (1998), Bless the Child (2000) and TV’s Gilmore Girls and Just Shoot Me.

Still, the most memorable reference comes in Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), where a neurotic Allen staggers down the street after a failed suicide attempt and happens into a movie theater, trying to “gather my thoughts and be logical and put the world back into rational perspective.” Cut to a shot of the Marx Bros. playing war helmets like xylophones in Duck Soup, allowing Allen to have an epiphany: “I’m watching these people up on the screen and I started getting hooked on the film! And I started to feel how can you even think of killing yourself? I mean, isn’t it so stupid? I mean, look at all the people up there on the screen. They’re real funny. And what if the worst is true? What if there’s no God and you only go around once and that’s it? Don’t you want to be part of the experience? What the hell, it’s not all a drag. And I’m thinking to myself, maybe I should stop ruining my life searching for answers I’m never gonna get and just enjoy it while it lasts. And after, who knows, maybe there is something, nobody really knows.

I know maybe is a really slim reed to hang your whole life on, but that’s the best we have. And then I started to sit back and I actually began to enjoy myself.” Reaction and Legacy No matter how beloved the film is today, it was not well received at all in its day. Critics deemed the satire offensive and so many of the lightning-quick jokes went right over audiences’ heads. It was such a flop that Paramount terminated its contract with the Marx Brothers after a five-picture run. This allowed Irving Thalberg to step in and offer the brothers new life at MGM, but the new life was also a different life, as the Marx Bros. were suddenly surrounded by romantic subplots and musical numbers in A Night at the Opera (1935), their other masterpiece. That’s not to say Duck Soup doesn’t have music of its own, but even these are geared for comedy, unlike the serious opera renditions of their MGM pictures. “The Freedonia Hymn” is so mockingly majestic that the Marxes pelt fruit at an opera-singing Dumont.

“These Are the Laws of My Administration” is a brilliant satire on totalitarianism, with Groucho listing a litany of forbidden items then proclaiming, “This is the land of the free!” And “The Country’s Goin’ to War” is gloriously ridiculous, with the Marx Bros. hamming it up as they approach the camera in the only musical number featuring all four brothers. (B) Thankfully, Duck Soup had somewhat of a resurgence among college film students in the ’60s, and today it’s considered one of the greatest films of all time. (B) On the AFI’s original Top 100 Films list, Duck Soup was voted the No. 85 best film of all time, and on the 10th Anniversary list, it jumped to No. 60. What’s more, when it came time to name history’s greatest comedies, the AFI voted Duck Soup into the Top 5. Meanwhile, the elite Sight & Sound polls saw Duck Soup actually received votes, an amazing feat for a list that’s absolutely brutal on comedies.

In 2002, Duck Soup received two votes apiece in both the Sight & Sound Critics Poll and Directors Poll, where Stuart Gordon, writer of Re-Animator (1985) and Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989), voted Duck Soup in his Top 3 Films of All Time, as did director Terry Jones, of Monty Python & The Holy Grail (1975) and Life of Brian (1979). If any of those are your favorite comedies, what does that then say about Duck Soup? Back in college, I had the occasion to watch the movie on one of those old library 16 mm playback systems. How odd, I know, for a college dude to sneak down into the school library after flag football and rev up the Marx Bros. But I tell you, as I sat there in those headphones, I tried my best not to laugh out loud and disrupt others, but it was a lost cause. Duck Soup has something for everybody: slapstick to entertain the most lowbrow viewers, and satire to impress the hardest academics.

If choosing the greatest comedy of all time means choosing the best single film from history’s funniest group of comedians, Duck Soup wins. Or, if you’re downhearted like Woody Allen in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), worried about the unpredictability of life and humanity’s lack of control over the world, Duck Soup may just help you settle in and appreciate all the small things, like a laugh at a great joke, that make this life so worth living. Citations: Duck Soup (1933) - IMDb IMDb 13 January 2017 5:53 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.

Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 25 titles created 03 Mar 2013 a list of 28 titles created 27 Apr 2014 a list of 31 titles created 15 Mar 2015 a list of 33 titles created 16 Jun 2015 a list of 22 titles created 1 month ago Search for " Duck Soup " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. 2 wins & 1 nomination. See more awards » Photos A sly business manager and two wacky friends of two opera singers help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies. Directors: Sam Wood, Edmund Goulding Stars: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx Mayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honor of famed African explorer Captain Spaulding.

Director: Victor Heerman Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley University, hires bumblers Baravelli and Pinky to help his school win the big football game against rival Darwin University. Director: Norman Z. McLeod On a transatlantic crossing, the Marx brothers get up to their usual antics and manage to annoy just about everyone on board the ship. Director: Norman Z. McLeod A veterinarian posing as a doctor, a race-horse owner and his friends struggle to help keep a sanitarium open with the help of a misfit race-horse. Director: Sam Wood During the Florida land boom, the Marx brothers run a hotel, auction off some land, thwart a jewel robbery, and generally act like themselves. Directors: Robert Florey, Joseph Santley Stars: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx The Marx Brothers come to the rescue in the Wild West when a young man, trying to settle an old family feud so he can marry the girl he loves, runs afoul of crooks. Director: Edward Buzzell The Marx Brothers try to help the owner of a circus recover some stolen funds before he finds himself out of a job.

Director: Edward Buzzell The Marx Brothers are employed at a hotel in postwar Casablanca, where a ring of Nazis is trying to recover a cache of stolen treasure. Director: Archie Mayo A detective is hired to protect the life of a singer, who has recently inherited a department store, from the store's crooked manager. Director: Charles Reisner A penniless theatrical producer must outwit the hotel efficiency expert trying to evict him from his room, while securing a backer for his new play. Director: William A. Seiter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal giant gorilla who takes a shine to their female blonde star. He is then captured and brought back to New York City for public exhibition. Directors: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack Stars: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot Edit Storyline The small state of Freedonia is in a financial mess, borrowing a huge sum of cash from wealthy widow Mrs. Teasdale. She insists on replacing the current president with crazy Rufus T.

Firefly and mayhem erupts. To make matters worse, the neighboring state sends inept spies Chicolini and Pinky to obtain top secret information, creating even more chaos! Written by Col Needham <col@imdb.com> See All (155) » Taglines: War Is Swell ...when the Marx Brothers are in it. They'll be out of the trenches by Christmas...if the food doesn't improve Genres: 17 November 1933 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording) Color: Groucho Marx attributed the film's strong satire on war to director Leo McCarey . See more » Goofs When they meet, Mrs. Teasdale holds Firefly's right hand while he holds the cigar with his left hand. The subsequent shot shows him holding the cigar with the right hand and the deck with the left one. See more » Quotes Rufus T. Firefly : I'll see you at the opera tonight. I'll hold your seat till you get there. After you get there you're on your own.

(Boston, MA) – See all my reviews Duck Soup(1933) is the funniest and most entertaining comedy that I've seen in my life. It was the last film the Marx Brothers would do for Paramount before going over to MGM. Duck Soup is an anarchic comedy where the main characters never live by the rules and rebel as a result. The Marx Brothers put out some of the greatest comedies that rarely has been matched. It is a satire about the nature of war, politics, and affairs of the state. Duck Soup(1933) is a great example of a film that can easily induce a person into bursts of laughter. 25 of 46 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes BFI launches special Marx Brothers season | The Independent Features BFI launches special Marx Brothers season Lifelong fan Sean O'Grady says that Groucho and his anarchic siblings can still teach today's movie comics some lessons Wednesday 21 January 2015 23:15 BST Click to follow The Independent Culture 'A Day at the Races' still stands up well today BFI Why bother with some 80-year-old (at least) jokes?

Well, allow me to help you understand why it is worth going to see the Marx Brothers' best movies, in proper screenings, at the special BFI season on London's South Bank. This, for example, is surely one of the best of Groucho Marx's many memorable exchanges with the stately woman, Margaret Dumont (referred to by Groucho when he picked up a belated Academy award in 1974 as "practically the fifth Marx Brother"). It is from Duck Soup (1933). Groucho is the charlatan Rufus T Firefly, invited by the wealthy Mrs Teasdale (Dumont), inexplicably, to become prime minister of Freedonia: "Rufus T Firefly: Not that I care, but where is your husband? Mrs Teasdale: Why, he's dead. Rufus T Firefly: I'll bet he's just using that as an excuse. Mrs Teasdale: I was with him to the very end. Rufus T Firefly: Hmmm. No wonder he passed away. Mrs. Teasdale: I held him in my arms and kissed him.

Rufus T Firefly: Oh, I see – then, it was murder. Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first. Mrs Teasdale: He left me his entire fortune. Rufus T Firefly: Is that so? Can't you see what I'm trying to tell you? I love you! [jumps into her arms] Mrs Teasdale: Oh, your Excellency! Rufus T Firefly: You're not so bad yourself." There are very few people alive who will have seen the Marxes first time around in the cinemas, let alone their vaudeville shows. In the 1950s and 1960s they were still appearing on TV – Groucho especially, whose quiz shows were based on him insulting the guests, one of so many Marxian comic innovations we take for granted – and their movies were often on the small screen. In the 1970s they were a late-night treat on the BBC over the Christmas holidays, and, as you can tell, I got hooked. Lots of comics would take off Groucho.

Woody Allen and others would perform homages in their films, and every joke shop had its stock of plastic Groucho nose, eyebrows and moustaches. But the Marxes, sons of Jewish immigrants, the father a tailor, the mother in showbusiness, seem best remembered for that quip of Groucho's about not wanting to be a member of any club that would have him as a member. That's not good enough. They virtually invented the cinematic sight gag, for a start, at least in its most literal form, usually with some prop extracted from the voluminous pockets of Harpo's coat; such as a candle burning at both ends (still can't work out how they did that). Groucho with Lisette Verea in 'A Night in Casablanca' (BFI) They also have a claim to having been first with cine-satire, mild as it had to be in a Hollywood governed by moralistic codes that restrained much earthier humour. The brothers' best pictures, the ones with some edge and little plot, were the early ones for Paramount, often based on their stage act.

This latter, by the way, was, by all accounts, a fairly conventional vaudeville "variety" affair, based on the Marxes' genuine musical and choral talents; they were originally billed as the Three Nightingales. As such, they were not successful – until they bombed one night and decided to, yes, insult the audience and experiment with more and more surreal antics to wake up a jaded theatre. It worked. Of the movies, by common consent, the finest is Duck Soup, which enjoyed a revival in the 1960s among the Vietnam generation as an anti-war piece. It is a mere 68 minutes long, and tellingly it does without the usual long musical interludes from Chico and Harpo. In the film, Freedonia is attacked by Sylvania. It is all very Ruritanian, yet even in our own time Europe is full of quarrels in faraway countries between people of whom we know nothing, from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Transdniestria.

In fact, so strong was this Duck Soup – in 1933 Hitler had just come to power – that Mussolini banned the film, with much the same aggrieved dignity as North Korea's Kim Jong-Un has displayed over The Interview. As with movies so with cartoons, one might add. But Duck Soup was also not greatly to the taste of contemporary, isolationist America; it was a box-office flop that ended their careers at Paramount. Read more Why Groucho Marx and TS Eliot didn't get on By contrast, The Cocoanuts, the first fruit of the Paramount deal, in 1929, was a commercial success, though also a satire, this time on the great Florida land boom of the day. Again, see the echo with our own time. Then as now America was struggling to recover from the implosion of a real-estate bubble and a stock market crash. The Cocoanuts is much more of a "musical", has poor sound quality, and was made on a clearly modest budget . The camera- work is static; the noisy cameras had to be covered to muffle their noise, and hence couldn't move easily.

Still, talk Groucho certainly did, as much as Harpo did not, and pointedly: "You can have any kind of a home you want. You can even get stucco. Oh, how you can get stuck-o". The second Paramount film, Animal Crackers, came in 1930, and was also based on their stage act. Groucho, as a big-game hunter, now explores even more outrageous word games and punnery, plus a little ad-libbing: "One morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got in my pyjamas, I don't know." Inventively, Groucho adds references to the stock prices of various busted shares of the time (on which he had lost a fortune), with, echoes of a contemporary Eugene O'Neill play, Strange Interlude. An audacious breach of the "fourth wall" sees Groucho deliver his soliloquy – quite a shock in the first years of sound; "Living with your folks. Living with your folks. The beginning of the end. Drab dead yesterdays shutting out beautiful tomorrows. Hideous, stumbling footsteps creaking along the misty corridors of time.

And in those corridors I see figures, strange figures, weird figures: Steel 186, Anaconda 74, American Can 138..." Or, "Don't forget that the stockholder of yesteryear is the stowaway of today", as he put it in Monkey Business, another Paramount picture, fatally compromised by the absence of Dumont. Comic pedigree: the Marx Brothers in 'A Day at the Races' (BFI) So the four, at the time, Marx Brothers settled into their roles at Paramount, and in a way they played themselves. Chico was the cod-Italian buffoon and wannabe fraudster. He played the piano and chased girls, and gambled, much as he did in real life. He was originally named Chicko by his siblings because he chased the chicks so much. "Chico" was a printer's typo, and it stuck. Harpo also chased girls and played the harp, (and a clarinet solo in The Cocoanuts). Harpo, by the way, could speak perfectly well, in a fine baritone. He never spoke again in public after one critic said of a stage show that it might have been better if Harpo hadn't said anything.

Zeppo played cheesy romantic leads, and left after the Paramount years, becoming an agent, as did Gummo, who never appeared on film (except for a 1921 short, Humor Risk, believed lost). All the brothers looked so alike that they could impersonate each other – brought to great effect in the famous "mirror scene", where Harpo and Chico, made up like Groucho, are indistinguishable to Groucho, and the audience, as they mimic each other's reflections. The idea was invented by Chaplin, but perfected by the Marxes. After Duck Soup, MGM took them on. The new studio offered bigger budgets and grander musical numbers. Most of their inventiveness survived the transition, and they starred in two productions that stand up well now – A Day at the Races and A Night at the Opera. And yet two things went wrong. First, one of their closest and most brilliant collaborators, Irving Thalberg, died, and, second, Groucho did not get on with Louis B Mayer.

As a result they were a little creatively neglected and the (relative) weakness of The Big Store, At the Circus and Go West in 1939 to 1941 shows that money isn't everything. By then, too, they were no longer working with other freewheeling writers and producers such as George Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The one picture they did with RKO, Room Service, like The Cocoanuts a sort of proto-Fawlty Towers hotel farce, wasn't even written for them. Which leaves their final effort, Love Happy (1949), produced with the sole purpose of clearing Chico's gambling debts. Not being shown by the BFI, it is a sad sort of goodbye, because it plainly ran out of dough, and much else, before it was finished, and they might have otherwise made more of one of the first celluloid appearances by Marilyn Monroe. Like Dumont, she too could have become another Marx Brother. Anyway, the South Bank beckons.

As Groucho once said, "Hello, I must be going." The Marx Brothers season, BFI Southbank, London SE1 ( bfi.org.uk/southbank ) to 31 January Groucho Marx - IMDb IMDb Soundtrack | Actor | Writer The bushy-browed, cigar-smoking wise-cracker with the painted-on moustache and stooped walk was the leader of The Marx Brothers . With one-liners that were often double entendres, Groucho never cursed in any of his performances and said he never wanted to be known as a dirty comic. With a great love of music and singing ( The Marx Brothers started ... See full bio » Born: a list of 47 people created 24 May 2011 a list of 36 people created 26 Jun 2011 a list of 24 people created 19 Oct 2014 a list of 36 people created 03 Jan 2016 a list of 24 people created 4 months ago Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Groucho Marx's work have you seen?

User Polls Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 3 wins. See more awards » Known For Duck Soup Rufus T. Firefly (1933) Animal Crackers Captain Jeffrey Spaulding (1930) 2013 Breaking Bad (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Felina (2013) ... (performer: "Lydia The Tattooed Lady" - uncredited) 2012 Hello I Must Be Going (performer: "Hello I Must Be Going" (a/k/a/ "Hooray For Captain Spaulding")) 2009 Whatever Works (performer: "Hello I Must Be Going") 1986 Hannah and Her Sisters (performer: "Freedonia's Going To War" - uncredited) 1976 That's Entertainment, Part II (Documentary) (performer: "Sing Ho! for the Open Highway! Sing Ho! for the Open Road!" - uncredited) 1970 Music Scene (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Episode #1.17 (1970) ...

(performer: "Father's Day") You Bet Your Life (TV Series) (performer - 13 episodes, 1950 - 1960) (lyrics - 1 episode, 1956) - Episode #10.30 (1960) ... (performer: "Waiting For The Robert E. Lee" - uncredited) - Episode #9.8 (1958) ... (performer: "I'm 94 Today") - Episode #8.34 (1958) ... (performer: "Play A Simple Melody") - Episode #8.22 (1958) ... (performer: "'O Sole Mio") 1952 A Girl in Every Port (performer: "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" - uncredited) 1951 Double Dynamite (performer: "It's Only Money", "Stone Walls", "Jesse James" - uncredited) 1950 Mr.

Music (performer: "Life Is So Peculiar") 1947 Copacabana (performer: "Go West, Young Man", "Let's Do the Copacabana" (uncredited)) 1941 The Big Store (performer: "Sing While You Sell" (1941)) 1940 Go West (performer: "Ridin' the Range" (1940), "You Can't Argue with Love" (1940), "Oh! Susanna" (1848) (uncredited), "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" (uncredited), "My Bonnie (Lies Over the Ocean)" (1881) (uncredited)) 1939 At the Circus (performer: "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" (1939), "Oh! Susanna" (1848) - uncredited) 1937 A Day at the Races (performer: "An der schönen, blauen Donau, Op.

314 (Blue Danube Waltz)" (1866), "La Cucaracha", "Down by the Old Mill Stream" (1908), "A Message from the Man in the Moon" (1937) - uncredited) 1935 A Night at the Opera (performer: "Sing Ho for the Open Highway!

Sing Ho for the Open Road!", "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" (1931) - uncredited) 1933 Duck Soup (performer: "These Are the Laws of My Administration" (1933), "The Country's Going to War" (1933) - uncredited) 1932 Horse Feathers (performer: "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It" (1932), "I Always Get My Man" (1932), "Everyone Says I Love You" (1932) - uncredited) 1931 Monkey Business (performer: "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" (1930), "Sweet Adeline" (1903) - uncredited) 1930 Animal Crackers (performer: "Hello, I Must Be Going" (1930), "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" (1928), "Gypsy Chorus" (1852), "My Old Kentucky Home" (1852) - uncredited) Hide

Question: In which of the Marx Brothers' films did Groucho Marx play the character 'Rufus T. Firefly, Prime Minister of Freedonia'?
Answer: 'DUCK SOUP'